Variety:

In 2015, Netflix accounted for about half of the overall 3% decline in TV viewing time among U.S. audiences, according to a new study by Michael Nathanson of MoffettNathanson. The analyst calculated that based on an estimate that Netflix’s domestic subs streamed 29 billion hours of video last year, representing 6% of total American live-plus-7 TV viewing reported by Nielsen (up from 4.4% in 2014). (…)

Moreover, Nathanson predicts Netflix’s total streaming hours as a percentage of TV viewing will continue to rise to about 14% by 2020. “Currently, Netflix is a source of industry pain, but not necessarily a cause of industry death,” he wrote in the note. ​(…)

Other studies have compared Netflix’s viewing to traditional TV. The service was on track to attract a larger 24-hour audience than each of the major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC) some time in 2016, per an analysis last summer by FBR Capital Markets. (…)

As of the end of 2015, Netflix reported 74.76 million streaming customers worldwide, including 44.74 million in the U.S. (…)

Netflix is now at 81.5 million subscribers worldwide.

The eventual size Netflix will grow to is largely being underestimated in my eyes. Think YouTube size but with paying subscribers and TV quality professional content.

Or, think a significant part of today’s (international) TV market owned by a single company.

Business Insider:

First, it’s too much effort to create your own new social network just for sharing Netflix content. That is never going to happen, so Netflix has to piggyback on an existing social network, like Facebook.

But that presents a second problem, which is that users freak out about privacy when Netflix automatically links to anything. “And what seems to be superficial stuff, but what seems to get people exercised, is the idea of some kind of automatic linkage. It’s toxic. We have experimented and explored, and it doesn’t work.”

So essentially Facebook burned people so heavily that we can’t have a social Netflix anytime soon.

Good interview with Netflix’s Reed Hastings by Peter Kafka at Re/code:

Since your last earnings call, some of your big video partners, particularly Time Warner and Fox, have gotten even more explicit about their intent to cut back what they sell to subscription video services. They clearly seem to be talking about you. What’s your response?

We’re going to continue to invest in original content, because that’s something we can influence and control, and consumers love it. So think of that as our big, long-term future. And to the degree that we can continue to license content from them, it’s great for us and great for them. But it’s clearly a decision they have to make.

When did you anticipate you’d see them taking this stance?

I would say very early on, when we were very successful with “Breaking Bad.” Because we knew that while we were adding a lot of value to “Breaking Bad,” AMC had created it. And that in principle, if AMC had a way to monetize the catalog of prior seasons, that would be great for AMC. And they didn’t, so this was the best alternative.

In the long term, the producer/developer was going to be the distributor. We’ve understood that for a long time.

Ben Thompson nails it in his Daily Update (paywall):

I think that Hastings is selling himself a bit short (given his track record, almost certainly on purpose): the larger Netflix’s user base becomes, the more leverage Netflix will have with content creators. In the case of undifferentiated content, Netflix will simply be too attractive when it comes to spreading out fixed costs; more importantly, in the case of differentiated content that drives subscriptions Netflix will have the biggest pocketbook — they are already spending twice as much as HBO — and given that attention is a zero-sum game, the difference could very well continue to increase.

This is why the German (and French and Italian etc.) TV landscape is in trouble in the near future: They rely on licensing fictional US content. But this content, even if its creators try to resist, will be in significant amounts be lured into international/global big money deals with Netflix; or with Amazon Prime Instant Video with the same results for local TV.

James McNab:

The traditional TV Industry should be in panic mode. Maybe it’s not a big deal that Netflix has an estimated 69 million subscribers worldwide and counting. Maybe it’s even a small thing that netflixers watch 100 million hours of video on the service every day.

(..)

Guess what? Netflix now produces 3 of the top 5 rated video series according to Rotten Tomatoes

Oh and guess who owns the other two? Just lil’ ol’ Amazon.

Big changes are coming to TV. I have been saying this for a while now: More than traditional US TV it is local TV in other countries licensing US scripted content that is in for a rude awakening.

Netflix and Amazon don’t need local TV stations and if the US networks and cable channels want to compete with the former two they’ll need to go the same route: internationally available streaming services.

They don’t need French, Italian or German TV stations for this. Quite the contrary. Everything else follows: There are certainly already meetings at Amazon being conducted about how to integrate live TV and more.

Fast Companies Co.Create: How Netflix Is Using Original Programming To Win Over Your Kids:

A total of 14 original shows made for Netflix’s kids section have premiered to date on the streaming service, with six of those shows produced by DreamWorks and eight from other production partners. And there are plenty more in the pipeline.

Makes sense given the economics and the job Netflix is hired to do for parents. In fact it is more surprising that they have not more original shows already available for kids.

I am writing about this in German for some time now: I don’t see what German TV stations which license most content they broadcast from the US studios can do against Netflix and Amazon Instant Video in the long run.

(I think most US analysts underestimate the global potential for these two. (and whatever second tier streaming provider might establish itself, like HBO))

Update, via Techmeme: Netflix is licensing films from YouTube stars and developing new shows to appeal to teens